The present invention relates to non-invasive high-resolution diagnostics of cardiac ischemia based on processing of body-surface electrocardiogram (ECG) data. The invention""s quantitative method of assessment of cardiac ischemia may simultaneously indicate both cardiac health itself and cardiovascular system health in general.
Heart attacks and other ischemic events of the heart are among the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. In general, the susceptibility of a particular patient to heart attack or the like can be assessed by examining the heart for evidence of ischemia (insufficient blood flow to the heart tissue itself resulting in an insufficient oxygen supply) during periods of elevated heart activity. Of course, it is highly desirable that the measuring technique be sufficiently benign to be carried out without undue stress to the heart (the condition of which might not yet be known) and without undue discomfort to the patient.
The cardiovascular system responds to changes in physiological stress by adjusting the heart rate, which adjustments can be evaluated by measuring the surface ECG R-R intervals. The time intervals between consecutive R waves indicate the intervals between the consecutive heartbeats (RR intervals). This adjustment normally occurs along with corresponding changes in the duration of the ECG QT intervals, which characterize the duration of electrical excitation of cardiac muscle and represent the action potential duration averaged over a certain volume of cardiac muscle (FIG. 1). Generally speaking, an average action potential duration measured as the QT interval at each ECG lead may be considered as an indicator of cardiac systolic activity varying in time.
Recent advances in computer technology have led to improvements in automatic analyzing of heart rate and QT interval variability. It is well known now that the QT interval""s variability (dispersion) observations performed separately or in combination with heart rate (or RR-interval) variability analysis provides an effective tool for the assessment of individual susceptibility to cardiac arrhythmias (B. Surawicz, J. Cardiovasc. Electrophysiol, 1996, 7, 777-784). Applications of different types of QT and some other interval variability to susceptibility to cardiac arrhythmias are described in U.S. Patents by Chamoun U.S. Pat. No. 5,020,540, 1991; Wang U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,974, 1989; Kroll et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,834, 1992; Henkin et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,783, 1994; Xue et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,065, 1998; Lander U.S. Pat. No. 5,827,195, 1998; Lander et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,047, 1999; Hojum et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,484, 1999).
It was recently found that cardiac electrical instability can be also predicted by linking the QT-dispersion observations with the ECG T-wave alternation analysis (Verrier et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,560,370; 5,842,997; 5,921,940). This approach is somewhat useful in identifying and managing individuals at risk for sudden cardiac death. The authors report that QT interval dispersion is linked with risk for arrhythmias in patients with long QT syndrome. However, QT interval dispersion alone, without simultaneous measurement of T-wave alternation, is said to be a less accurate predictor of cardiac electrical instability (U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,370 at column 6, lines 4-15).
Another application of the QT interval dispersion analysis for prediction of sudden cardiac death is developed by J. Sarma (U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,338). He describes a method of an autonomic nervous system testing that is designed to evaluate the imbalances between both parasympathetic and sympathetic controls on the heart and, thus, to indicate a predisposition for sudden cardiac death.
The same author suggested that an autonomic nervous system testing procedure might be designed on the basis of the QT hysteresis (J. Sarma et al., PACE 10, 485-491 (1988)). Hysteresis between exercise and recovery was observed, and was attributed to sympatho-adrenal activity in the early post-exercise period. Such an activity was revealed in the course of QT interval adaptation to changes in the RR interval during exercise with rapid variation of the load.
The influence of sympatho-adrenal activity and the sharp dependence of this hysteresis on the time course of abrupt QT interval adaptation to rapid changes in the RR interval dynamics radically overshadows the method""s susceptibility to the real ischemic-like changes of cardiac muscle electrical parameters and cardiac electrical conduction. Therefore, this type of hysteresis phenomenon would not be useful in assessing the health of the cardiac muscle itself, or in assessing cardiac ischemia.
A similar sympatho-adrenal imbalance type hysteresis phenomenon was observed by A. Krahn et al. (Circulation 96, 1551-1556 (1997)(see FIG. 2 therein)). The authors state that this type of QT interval hysteresis may be a marker for long-QT syndrome. However, long-QT syndrome hysteresis is a reflection of a genetic defect of intracardiac ion channels associated with exercise or stress-induced syncope or sudden death. Therefore, similar to the example described above, although due to two different reasons, it also does not involve a measure of cardiac ischemia or cardiac muscle ischemic health.
A conventional non-invasive method of assessing coronary artery diseases associated with cardiac ischemia is based on the observation of morphological changes in a surface electrocardiogram during physiological exercise (stress test). A change of the ECG morphology, such as an inversion of the T-wave, is known to be a qualitative indication of ischemia. The dynamics of the ECG ST-segments are continuously monitored while the shape and slope, as well as ST-segment elevation or depression, measured relative to an average base line, are altering in response to exercise load. A comparison of any of these changes with average values of monitored ST segment data provides an indication of insufficient coronary blood circulation and developing ischemia. Despite a broad clinical acceptance and the availability of computerized Holter monitor-like devices for automatic ST segment data processing, the diagnostic value of this method is limited due to its low sensitivity and low resolution. Since the approach is specifically reliable primarily for ischemic events associated with relatively high coronary artery occlusion, its widespread use often results in false positives, which in turn may lead to unnecessary and more expensive, invasive cardiac catheterization.
Relatively low sensitivity and low resolution, which are fundamental disadvantages of the conventional ST-segment depression method, are inherent in such method""s being based on measuring an amplitude of a body surface ECG signal, which signal by itself does not accurately reflect changes in an individual cardiac cell""s electrical parameters normally changing during an ischemic cardiac event. A body surface ECG signal is a composite determined by action potentials aroused from discharge of hundred of thousands of individual excitable cardiac cells. When electrical activity of excitable cells slightly and locally alters during the development of exercise-induced local ischemia, its electrical image in the ECG signal on the body surface is significantly overshadowed by the aggregate signal from the rest of the heart. Therefore, regardless of physiological conditions, such as stress or exercise, conventional body surface ECG data processing is characterized by a relatively high threshold (lower sensitivity) of detectable ischemic morphological changes in the ECG signal. An accurate and faultless discrimination of such changes is still a challenging signal processing problem.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a non-invasive technique for detecting and measuring cardiac ischemia in a patient.
Another object of the invention is to provide a technique for detecting and measuring cardiac ischemia, which technique is not unduly uncomfortable or stressful for the patient.
Another object of the invention is to provide a technique for detecting and measuring cardiac ischemia, which technique may be implemented with relatively simple equipment.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a technique for detecting and measuring cardiac ischemia, which technique is sensitive to low levels of such ischemia.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies in the conventional ST-segment analysis. Although still based on the processing of a body surface ECG signal, it nevertheless provides a highly sensitive and high resolution method for distinguishing changes in cardiac electrical conduction associated with developing cardiac ischemia. In addition to the significant cardiac ischemic changes detectable by the conventional method, the present invention allows one to determine much smaller ischemia-induced conditions and alterations in cardiac electrical conduction. Thus, unlike a conventional ST-segment depression ischemic analysis, the method of the present invention opens up opportunities to detect low-level cardiac ischemia (undetectable via the regular ST-segment method) and also to resolve and monitor small variations of cardiac ischemia. In particular, individuals who would be considered of the same level of cardiac and cardiovascular health according to a conventional ECG evaluation (an ST-depression method), will have different measurements if compared according to the method of the present invention, and the cardiac and cardiovascular health of an individual can be quantitatively evaluated, compared and monitored by repeated applications of the method of the present invention.
The present invention is based in part on the discovery that, under certain physiological conditions, QT- and RR-interval data sets may be interpreted as representing composite dispersion-restitution curves, which characterize the basic dynamic properties of the medium (in this case, cardiac muscle). Indeed, if rapid QT interval adaptation facilitated by sympatho-adrenal activity occurs much faster than gradual heart rate changes following slow alteration of external physiological conditions, then the QT interval may be considered primarily as a function of a heart rate and/or a preceding cardiac cycle length and does not substantially depend on time-dependent sympatho-adrenal transients. In such a case a particular QT- and RR-interval data set determines a time-independent, dispersion-like, quasi-stationary curve which does not substantially depend on rapid adaptational transients and depends primarily on medium electrical parameters.
Based on this discovery, the present invention provides a highly sensitive and high resolution method of assessing cardiac ischemia. This method allows one to detect comparatively small alterations of cardiac muscle electrical excitation properties that develop during even a moderate ischemic condition. For example, consider a gradual heart rate adjustment in a particular human subject in response to slow (quasi-stationary), there-and-back changes of external physiological conditions. Ideally, when a cardiac muscle is supplied by a sufficient amount of oxygen during both gradually increasing and gradually decreasing heart rate stages, the corresponding, there-and-back, quasi-stationary QT versus RR interval curves which result should be virtually identical. However, if ischemia exists, even if only to a very minor extent, there will be alterations of cardiac muscle repolarization and excitation properties for the human subject with the result that one observes a specific quasi-stationary QT-RR hysteresis loop. Unlike non-stationary loops (J. Sarma et al., supra (1987); A. Krahn et al., supra (1997)), the quasi-stationary hystereses of the present invention do not vary substantially versus the course of sympatho-adrenal QT-interval adjustment. The domains and shapes of these loops are not significantly affected by time-dependent transients rapidly decaying during a transition from one particular heart rate to another; instead, they depend primarily on ischemia-induced changes of medium parameters. The domain encompassed by such a quasi-stationary hysteresis loop and its shape represent a new quantitative characteristics that indicate cardiac muscle health itself and the health of the cardiovascular system in general. Moreover, any measure of the shape and/or domain enclosed in the hysteresis loop (a measure of a set as defined in the integral theory) possesses the property that any expansion of the domain results in an increase of the measure. Any such mathematical measure can be taken as the new characteristics of cardiac health mentioned above. An arbitrary monotonic function of such a measure would still represent the same measure in another, transformed scale.
A first aspect of the present invention is a method of assessing cardiac ischemia in a subject to provide a measure of cardiovascular health in that subject. The method comprises the steps of:
(a) collecting a first QT- and RR-interval data set from the subject during a stage of gradually increasing heart rate;
(b) collecting a second QT- and RR-interval data set from the subject during a stage of gradually decreasing heart rate;
(c) comparing said first QT- and RR-interval data set to the second QT- and RR-interval data set to determine the difference between the data sets; and
(d) generating from the comparison of step (c) a measure of cardiac ischemia during exercise in said subject, wherein a greater difference between said first and second data sets indicates greater cardiac ischemia and lesser cardiovascular health in said subject.
During the periods of gradually increasing and gradually decreasing heart rate the effect of the sympathetic, parasympathetic, and hormonal control on formation of the hysteresis loop is sufficiently small, minimized or controlled so that the ischemic changes are readily detectable. This maintenance is achieved by effecting a gradual sincrease and gradual decrease in the heart rate, such as, for example, by controlling the heart rate through pharmacological intervention, by direct electrical stimulation of the heart, or by gradually increasing and gradually decreasing exercise loads.
Accordingly, the foregoing method can be implemented in a variety of different ways. A particular embodiment comprises the steps of:
(a) collecting a first QT- and RR-interval data set from said subject during a stage of gradually increasing exercise load and gradually increasing heart rate;
(b) collecting a second QT- and RR-interval data set from said subject during a stage of gradually decreasing exercise load and gradually decreasing heart rate;
(c) comparing the first QT- and RR-interval data set to the second QT- and RR-interval data set to determine the difference between said data sets; and
(d) generating from said comparison of step (c) a measure of cardiac ischemia during exercise in said subject, wherein a greater difference between said first and second data sets indicates greater cardiac ischemia and lesser cardiovascular health in said subject.
A second aspect of the present invention is a system for assessing cardiac ischemia in a subject to provide a measure of cardiovascular health in that subject. The system comprises:
(a) an ECG recorder for collecting a first QT- and RR-interval data set from the subject during a stage of gradually increasing heart rate and collecting a second QT- and RR-interval data set from the subject during a stage of gradually decreasing heart rate;
(b) a computer program running in a computer or other suitable means for comparing said first QT- and RR-interval data set to the second QT- and RR-interval data set to determine the difference between the data sets; and
(c) a computer program running in a computer or other suitable means for generating from said determination of the difference between the data sets a measure of cardiac ischemia during exercise in said subject, wherein a greater difference between the first and second data sets indicates greater cardiac ischemia and lesser cardiovascular health in the subject.
A further aspect of the present invention is a method of assessing cardiac ischemia in a subject to provide a measure of cardiac or cardiovascular health in that subject, the method comprising the steps, performed on a computer system, of:
(a) providing a first QT- and RR-interval data set collected from the subject during a stage of gradually increasing heart rate;
(b) providing a second QT- and RR-interval data set collected from the subject during a stage of gradually decreasing heart rate;
(c) comparing the first QT- and RR-interval data set to the second QT- and RR-interval data set to determine the difference between the data sets; and
(d) generating from the comparison of step (c) a measure of cardiac ischemia during stimulation in the subject, wherein a greater difference between the first and second data sets indicates greater cardiac ischemia and lesser cardiac or cardiovascular health in the subject.
The first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets may be collected while minimizing the influence of rapid transients due to autonomic nervous system and hormonal control on the data sets. The first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets are collected without an intervening rest stage. The generating step may be carried out by generating curves from each of the data sets, and/or the generating step may be carried out by comparing the shapes of the curves from data sets. In a particular embodiment, the generating step is carried out by determining a measure of the domain between the curves. In another particular embodiment, the generating step is carried out by both comparing the shapes of the curves from data sets and determining a measure of the domain between the curves. The method may include the further step of displaying the curves. In one embodiment the comparing step may be carried out by: (i) filtering the first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets; (ii) generating a smoothed hysteresis loop from the filtered first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets; and then (iii) determining a measure of the domain inside the smoothed hysteresis loop. In another embodiment, the comparing step may be carried out by: (i) filtering the first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets; (ii) generating preliminary minimal values for the first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets; (iii) correcting the preliminary minimal values; (iv) generating first and second preliminary smoothed curves from each of the filtered data sets; (v) correcting the preliminary smoothed curves; (vi) fitting the preliminary smoothed curves; (vii) generating a smoothed hysteresis loop from the first and second fitted smoothed curves; and then (viii) determining a measure of the domain inside the hysteresis loop. In still another embodiment, the comparing step is carried out by: (i) filtering the first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets by moving average smoothing; (ii) generating a smoothed hysteresis loop from the filtered first and second QT- and RR-interval data sets; and then (iii) determining a measure of the domain inside the hysteresis loop.
A further aspect of the present invention is a computer system for assessing cardiac ischemia in a subject to provide a measure of cardiac or cardiovascular health in that subject, the system comprising:
(a) means for providing a first QT- and RR-interval data set from the subject during a stage of gradually increasing heart rate;
(b) means for providing a second QT- and RR-interval data set from the subject during a stage of gradually decreasing heart rate;
(c) means for comparing the first QT- and RR-interval data set to the second QT- and RR-interval data set to determine the difference between the data sets; and
(d) means for generating from the comparison of step (c) a measure of cardiac ischemia during stimulation in the subject, wherein a greater difference between the first and second data sets indicates greater cardiac ischemia and lesser cardiac or cardiovascular health in the subject.
A still further aspect of the present invention is a computer program product for assessing cardiac ischemia in a subject to provide a measure of cardiac or cardiovascular health in that subject, the computer program product comprising a computer usable storage medium having computer readable program code means embodied in the medium, the computer readable program code means comprising:
(a) computer readable program code means for comparing a first QT- and RR-interval data set to a second QT- and RR-interval data set to determine the difference between the data sets; and
(b) computer readable program code means for generating from the comparison of step (c) a measure of cardiac ischemia during stimulation in the subject, wherein a greater difference between the first and second data sets indicates greater cardiac ischemia and lesser cardiac or cardiovascular health in the subject.
While the present invention is described herein primarily with reference to the use of QT- and RR-interval data sets, it will be appreciated that the invention may be implemented in simplified form with the use of RR-interval data sets alone. For use in the claims below, it will be understood that the term xe2x80x9cRR-interval data setxe2x80x9d is intended to be inclusive of both the embodiments of QT- and RR-interval data sets and RR-interval data sets alone, unless expressly subject to the proviso that the data set does not include a QT-interval data set.
The present invention is explained in greater detail in the drawings herein and the specification set forth below.